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Topic: The problem with sitcoms today

Hillary Charles
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 748
From: York, PA, USA
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 04-01-2008 03:50 PM

About TV Land. It used to be a safe refuge from the lame programming choking the airwaves today. So what do they do with that reputation? CREATE ANOTHER DAMN REALITY SHOW! [puke]

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 04-01-2008 04:30 PM

Sanford and Son rules. LOLOL when Son got down to propose to his woman he put his knee in some kind of food LOLOLOLOLOL!!! Laugh riot x10000

Seriously though, the theme should be the theme music to some of the junky theaters out there. Do TV shows even have theme music any more? By that I mean "memorable"?

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-01-2008 06:43 PM

I think the last memorable theme song was Seinfeld, but more for the way it sounded than the melody. And it's still not as memorable as "Greeeeeeeeen Acres is the place to be" or "Come and listen to my story 'bout a man named Jed" or "Boy the way Glenn Miller played...songs that made the hit parade!" or "Well, we're movin' on up, to the east side, to a deeeeeeluxe apartment in the sky!" or "They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky" or "Baby, if you ever wonder, wonder whatever became of me" or "Who can turn the world on with her smile" or BOMMMMMM BA BOM BOM (the Dragnet theme) or about a zillion others. Old TV rocks.

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Bruce McGee
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1776
From: Asheville, NC USA... Nowhere in Particular.
Registered: Aug 1999

posted 04-02-2008 06:16 PM

Mike, DRAGNET was Dum Dee Dum Dum... [Big Grin]

Listen to the theme of WILL AND GRACE. It's like listening to a piano that is having a seizure!

TV LAND sucks. Hacked up old shows suck.

No wonder none of the kids at work like old TV.

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Mike Heenan
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1896
From: Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 04-02-2008 06:35 PM

Seinfeld had a theme song? Well I always thought the Magnum PI tune was pretty badass, and the Miami Vice one as well.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 04-02-2008 07:12 PM

Many broadcast network TV shows have such abbreviated opening sequences that there's really very little opportunity to even have any theme music, much less deliver anything remotely memorable.

Guess you have to go to premium cable networks like HBO for original series with full opening credit sequences and theme music. The Sopranos had a fairly memorable opening song. The late Michael Kamen did some of his best work with the opening music to Band of Brothers. I like the theme music for John Adams, currently playing on HBO.

It has been quite a while since a broadcast network TV series had even a somewhat popular theme song. The Seinfeld theme music is very unique and easily identifiable. The theme for Friends got some fairly heavy top 40 radio airplay in the mid 1990s. I think The X Files had a reasonably catchy theme song.

But bring up any modern TV series -anything on network TV made in the last 10 years and I'll probably have a hard time thinking of its theme song tune.

Between the late 1960s and early 1980s lots of TV series had pretty memorable theme music. Some theme songs were big hits. Here's just a few TV series with memorable theme music I just thought of from memory (I'm sure there's a lot more):

All in the Family
The A Team
Baretta
The Brady Bunch
Cheers
Dallas
Gilligan's Island
Happy Days
Hawaii Five-0
Laverne & Shirley
The Dukes of Hazzard
The Greatest American Hero
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
M*A*S*H
Mission: Impossible
Space 1999
SWAT
Taxi
Welcome Back Kotter

Even some end title music was pretty cool. I really liked the rock guitar oriented end title music to WKRP in Cincinnati, especially if they played the music to its end (cool power chord at the end of it). Modern TV series stomp all over the end credits of any TV series or movie with all their audio cut in promos and other bullshit for other programs. Just another reason to not even watch the damned shows when they originally air. More convenient to rent/buy the DVD box set and watch without all the spam infection.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 04-02-2008 08:14 PM

Let's see how well I remember those themes:

quote: Bobby Henderson
All in the Family

Hated this show. I do not recall any theme music and it'd not likely sound familiar if I heard it.

quote: Bobby Henderson
The A Team

I'd surely recognize the theme if I heard it.

quote: Bobby Henderson
Baretta

Never saw it or even heard of it.

quote: Bobby Henderson
The Brady Bunch

This theme makes me want to go on one of those mass-shooting sprees.

quote: Bobby Henderson
Cheers

I remember the theme. One of the last of the "Lite and lazy" themes.

quote: Bobby Henderson
Dallas

I remember this show being stupid. There's no way I'd recognize its theme music.

quote: Bobby Henderson
Gilligan's Island

Instantly recognizable.

quote: Bobby Henderson
Happy Days

Instantly recognizable even if you've never seen the show since the name is actually mentioned in the lyrics more than once.

quote: Bobby Henderson
Hawaii Five-0

Even though I don't think I've ever seen this, I bet I'd recognize the theme music.

quote: Bobby Henderson
Laverne & Shirley

I'd probably recognize it if I heard it again.

quote: Bobby Henderson
The Dukes of Hazzard

I *might* recognize the theme. Maybe. Not sure.

quote: Bobby Henderson
The Greatest American Hero

I remember more about the theme than the show, and I can only vaguely recall the theme. All I know is that the show was about some frizzy-haired loser and wasn't very exciting.

quote: Bobby Henderson
The Mary Tyler Moore Show

I am male, so I never saw this show. I didn't want to get beaten up by my friends.

quote: Bobby Henderson
M*A*S*H

This is one of those super-lite and lazy themes which can induce coma... or maybe it's like being under the influence of something.

quote: Bobby Henderson
Mission: Impossible

Instantly recognizable, mainly due to the recent movies.

quote: Bobby Henderson
Space 1999

Never heard of it until right this second.

quote: Bobby Henderson
SWAT

Never heard of it. Is it as awesome as The Equalizer or Quincy?

quote: Bobby Henderson
Taxi

The ULTIMATE lite and lazy under-the-influence/comatose theme. It goes perfect with some live action Garfield.

quote: Bobby Henderson
Welcome Back Kotter

I can't remember this, but I know I'd instantly recognize it.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-02-2008 09:36 PM

quote: Bruce McGee
Hacked up old shows suck.

Yeah. Don't even get me started on what they did to WKRP for the DVD release.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 04-02-2008 10:29 PM

quote: Joe Redifer
Hated this show. I do not recall any theme music and it'd not likely sound familiar if I heard it.

Edith Bunker shrieking the high notes of Those Were The Days is tough to forget, even if you despised All in the Family.

quote: Joe Redifer
Never saw it or even heard of it.

Never heard of Baretta? Robert Blake's TV series? Joe, you may be too young to remember that one. Pretty big hit in the 1970s. Sammy Davis, Jr. had a pretty big hit with the show's theme song.

quote: Joe Redifer
Instantly recognizable even if you've never seen the show since the name is actually mentioned in the lyrics more than once.

I think Weezer helped Happy Days even further with their music video for Buddy Holly. It was one of the few cool things on those Windows95 upgrade discs.

quote: Joe Redifer
I am male, so I never saw this show. I didn't want to get beaten up by my friends.

Had I been an adult, I probably wouldn't have watched much of the Mary Tyler Moore Show either. As circumstances would have it, I was in elementary school at that time which also meant I didn't have control of the TV clicker. Mary Tyler Moore looked pretty hot in the Dick Van Dyke show.

quote: Joe Redifer
This is one of those super-lite and lazy themes which can induce coma... or maybe it's like being under the influence of something.

Funny you should mention that, Joe. The song title for the theme to M*A*S*H is: Suicide is Painless.

quote: Joe Redifer
I can't remember this, but I know I'd instantly recognize it.

Welcome Back was a pretty big hit in the 1970s. Pretty decent song. Too bad the show played it so much to the point of driving it into the ground.

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Ron Funderburg
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 814
From: Chickasha, Oklahoma, USA
Registered: Nov 2007

posted 04-02-2008 10:44 PM

Actually the theme of NCIS isn't bad their credit music is used all through the show. It is one of the few crime shows on TV right now I like well wait there is MONK I like that one and the theme on it is pretty good but then I like Randy Newman!

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 04-02-2008 11:50 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
I think Weezer helped Happy Days even further

WHO?

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 04-03-2008 12:27 AM

Weezer - Buddy Holly

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 04-03-2008 12:35 AM

It's a rock band. They're great.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 04-03-2008 12:39 AM

I agree with the first part of that statement, anyway.

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James Westbrook
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1133
From: Lubbock, Texas, Usa
Registered: Mar 2006

posted 04-03-2008 01:09 AM

John Sebastian's "Welcome Back", the theme from Welcome Back Kotter", is now being used on a promo by NBC to promote new episodes of their sitcoms.
We forgot the theme from Tv's "Batman"...the Adam West one.

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